与讲师见面

Antoine Flahault

Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva) and co-Director of Centre Virchow-Villermé (Université Paris Descartes)University of Geneva and Université Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris Cité

Rafael Ruiz De Castañeda

Institute of Global Health - Faculty of MedicineUniversity of Geneva

Defeating Ebola Together Week 2: Symptoms of Socio-political Disorder
"The Importance of Communication"

"Clear and transparent communication is crucial in this kind of epidemic -- why?"

Information is a crucial component in epidemics of this kind,

because doctors save lives by treating people, of course,

but information also saves lives by

allowing the population to understand the disease, its modes of transmission

and the measures that can be taken for protection.

This is obviously crucial information.

All the more so in this epidemic because Ebola

was an extremely rare and little known disease,

especially in this area -- it was totally unknown

in the area -- and also because Ebola is an extremely scary disease.

Communication, then, is very important because it not only

allows people to protect themselves, but also helps to avoid panic.

And we've seen, in this case, that the job has not been very well done.

"How are communication strategies created and implemented in this type of epidemic?"